Collapsible shipping container



Nov. 29, 1960 c. D. FALLERT coLLAPsIBLE SHIPPING CONTAINER Filed July 24. 1958 W rf Wm MF WM F m FIGJ Unit States Patent O COLLAPSIBLE SHIPPING CONTAINER Filed July 24, 1958, Ser. No. 750,687

1 Claim. (Cl. 229-41) The invention relates broadly to improvements in shipping containers constructed of solid libreboard, corrugate breboard or any other suitable bendable material and in particular to a container with top and bottom closure aps that may be fully erected by the manufacturer and the bottom closure flaps securely sealed and then collapsed for shipment and storage.

A regular slotted carton, the most common ibreboard container construction, consists of opposed pairs of hingedly connected vertical Walls and top and bottom flaps attached to the upper and lower margins of the vertical walls. The tiaps are folded inwardly to a right angular lapped relationship, thereby forming top and bottom closures. This type container is normally shipped and stored in a at condition and must be assembled by the user to a box-like condition and the bottom flaps sealed by a suitable means prior to placing articles in the container.

In many utilizations of this type container the necessity of forming the container and sealing the bottom aps causes hardships and uneconomic operations such as in the field packing of lettuce. Lettuce cartons as an example are commonly erected in the harvest field by means of a truck mounted stitching machine that seals the bottom aps and thereby eliminates the necessity of transporting the formed and bottom sealed cartons. The field assembly method requires considerable capital investment and the operator must work under rather diicult conditions.

An alternative method, requiring the carton manufacturer to apply pressure sensitive adhesive to the bottom aps, eliminates some of the disadvantages of the eld stitching operation but the nature of pressure sensitive adhesives is such that they are subject to deterioration prior to usage and following manual closure and Sealing of the bottom flaps, the adhesive bond is subject to failure after prolonged stress.

Previous attempts, disclosed in the patent art, to provide cartons collapsible by the manufacture following assembly and..of the general form of a regular slotted carton, will not permit the use of the more efficient one piece container blank or they are collapsible in a manner which injects one or more additional thicknesses of the container forming material between pairs of foldably connected panels and thereby prevent a atwise contacting relationship of these panels in the collapsed condition. this results in excessive resistance to complete collapsing of the carton and in crushing of the container forming materials and undue stress on the outer plies at the folds.

There has been a continuing need for a regular slotted type carton that could be preassembled by the manufacture and then collapsed for convenient storage and transportation. lt is, therefore` an obiect of this invention to provide in a container of the type described, means for collapsing the erected container for shipping and storage purposes.

An important object is to provide a container that is fully collapsible and wherein each pair of panels connected by a diagonal score line will lie in contacting atwise relation to each other when the container is fully collapsed causing minimum stress and deleterious effect on the box forming materials.

Another important object is to provide an economical collapsible container which may be assembled from a one piece blank and having sealed bottom closure aps and foldable top closure aps.

Another object is the provision in a regular slotted carton means for collapsing the erected container by the manufacturer which will in turn permit the collapsed container to be re-erected by the user into a box-like condition without the aid of any additional equipment or materials.

A further object is to provide a container with scores diagonally arranged, in the side vertical walls and in the top flaps which are hingedly connected to the side vertical walls, in such a manner that said diagonal scores will permit collapsing the erected and bottom sealed container.

A still further object is to provide a container that may be collapsed following initial usage for purposes of economical storage or transportation and then again erected for further utilization.

Another object is to provide a collapsible container that is free standing and rigid in the fully erected or reerected form before placing the contents therein.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon a full and complete understanding of the construction of the container. The accompanying drawings illustrate an embodiment of the invention and form a part of the specification. Like numerals and symbols therein appearing refer to like parts wherever they occur.

Fig. l is a plan view illustrating the container embodying a preferred form of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the completely erected container as formed by the manufacturer from the blank shown in Fig. l;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a container as shown in Fig. 2 in a partially collapsed condition;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a further stage of collapsing the container; Y

Fig. 5 is a view of a container, as illustrated in Fig. 2, in a fully collapsed condition; and

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of a re-erected container with the side top aps turned outwardly in a substantially right angular relationship to the side panels, thereby providing a rigid condition to the container walls to facilitate convenient and accurate placement of the articles to be packed n the container.

The blank for the collapsible container, illustrated in Fig. 1, comprises vertical side wall panels 10 and vertical end wall panels` 11 hingedly connected in side by side relation and defined by horizontal iiap scores 12 and'13 and vertical corner scores 14. The top, side closure aps 15 are hingedly connected to the upper edges of side panels 10 by flap score 12 and are separated by slots 16. The top, end closure flaps 17 are hingedly connected to the upper edge of vertical end walls 11 by flap scores 12 and are separated by slots 16. Bottom closure flaps 18 are hingedly connected to the lower edges of the vertical wall panels 10 and 11 by flap score 13.

The blank illustrated in Fig. 1 may be erected by the manufacturer in any convenient manner. In a preferred method the side and end walls may be folded inwardly about vertical scores 14 into a tubular relation and assembly flap 19 brought into parallel contacting relation with the then adjacent vertical end wall 11 and secured thereto by staples or adhesively bonding in a manner well known. Assembly ap 19 may be omitted and the Patented Nov. 29, 1960 container manufacturer effects the fully erected container illustrated in Fig. 2.

The diagonal scores 20 positioned in vertical side panels substantially bisect the angles included between the vertical corner scores 14 and horizontal flaps score 13 and converge upwardly and inwardly, in respect to each other, until terminated at flaps score 12. The diagonal scores 21 positioned in the top side closureV flaps 15, initiate at the convergent termination of diagonal score 20 and diverge upwardly and outwardly to the free edges of the top closure flaps in a right angular relation to the diagonal scores 20.

In order to collapse the container as illustrated in Fig. 2, the end panels 11 and attached end closure flaps 17 are folded inwardly and downwardly about ap score 13 in the manner illustrated successively in Figs. 3 and 4 to a flatwise relation essentially parallel to the plane formed by the sealed bottom closure flaps 18. Simultaneously the portions of side panels 10 defined by flap score 13, the converging diagonal scores 20, and the point on ap score 12 or the intersecting section of flap score 12, said point or section of ap score 12 being identified as 22, are forced outwardly and downwardly about flap score 13 to a atwise relation. At the same time the portions of top side wall flaps 15, determined by the diverging diagonal scores 21 and the point on flap score 12 or the intersecting section of flap score 12, identified as 22, fold inwardly and thereby trap therebetween the fan folded remaining portions of vertical side panels 10 and top side panels 15. Thus the portions of the side walls and their top fiaps connected at least in part by said diagonal scores will be in atwise contacting relation to each other without intervening plies of paperboard at the scores providing complete collapsing without crushing stresses on the folds. The resulting fully collapsed container is in condition for economical storage shipping and handling as illustrated in Fig. 5.

Re-erection of the collapsed container by the user may be performed by grasping the free margin edges of the infolded top side flaps 15 and lifting said flaps and thereby simultaneously causing the side wall panels 10 and end wall panels 11 to attain the fully erected condition illustrated in Fig. 2. Further, in one continuing motion the top side flaps 15 may be folded outwardly to a right angular relationship to the vertical side walls 10, as illustrated in Fig. 6, and thereby cause complete rigidity of the side walls to facilitate accurate placement of desired contents in the container.

Upon loading the container, final closure of the top flaps 15 and 17 is accomplished by stitching, taping, or adhesively bonding in a manner well known.

It is to be understood that the embodiments herein described are illustrative and not restrictive, and it is also to be understood that the invention may be susceptible of embodiment in other modified forms, and that all such modifications which are similar to or equivalent hereto come equally within the scope of the claim next appearing.

I claim:

A container fully collapsed in flatwise relationship for shipping, the container having opposed pairs of connected side and end wall panels to which are foldably connected by means of scores top and bottom closure flaps, the bottom closure flaps being infolded and secured in overlapping relationship, the side walls each being diagonally scored and with the scores extending in converging relationship and with each score on each side wall extending from respective corners of the side wall panels to the liap score of each side wall panel, the scores on each side wall panel terminating in spaced relationship with each other at the fiap score and thus defining a mid section and a substantially triangular section extending from each side thereof, the top flap of each side wall being diagonally scored and with the scores converging from the free edges thereof inwardly from end edges toward and terminating adjacent the terminus of the converged ends of the scores on each side wall and thus forming a mid section with modified triangular sections extending from each side thereof, the score line of each side panelv defining adjacent portions of the mid sections and the triangularly shaped sections on the side walls and the modified triangular sections on each closure flap, the end wall panels with their respective closure aps extended outwardly thereof being infolded in overlapping substantially flatwise condition and over the infolded bottom closure flaps, the mid section of eachside wall being folded outwardly beyond the infolded bottom flaps, each triangular section of each side wall being infolded and overlapping an adjacent portion of the mid section of each side wall, each modified triangular section of the closure flap being outwardly folded from each infolded triangular side wall section and overlapping a portion of each adjacent triangular section of the side wall, the mid portion of each closure flap being infolded and having end portions thereof overlapping portions only of the outwardly folded modified triangular sections of the closure ap, and with a central portion of the infolded mid section of the closure flap being in overlapped relationship with an adjacent exposed inner portion of the mid section of the side wall, whereby when the infolded mid sections of the side wall closure fiaps are grapsed and raised and moved inwardly toward one another, the side walls including the triangular sections thereof will be moved to erected condition simultaneously with the end walls to form Ia container.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,175,160 McDonald Mar. 14, 1916 1,911,953 Halladay May 30, 1933 2,285,786 Vera .lune 9, 1942 FOREIGN PATENTS 463,098 Italy Apr. 14, 1951 593,692 Great Britain Oct. 23, 1947 

